Perhaps Not Heston

Thanks, once again, to Charles Champlin for his wonderful writing (“Mitchum: Hollywood’s Enduring Bad Boy,” Calendar, July 2, and “Innocent, Patriot, Idealist, Romantic,” July 4). His remembrances of Robert Mitchum and Jimmy Stewart were both magical, heartfelt and evocative. But, in naming the few movie icons that remain with us, I think Champlin erred on the side of generosity by including Charlton Heston.

Heston would be the first to admit, with many seconding the thought, that he does not belong in that same rarefied air. He has done memorable acting in the movies--with my special favorites being “Khartoum,” “Will Penny,” “The Big Country” and “The Three Musketeers.” His performance as the evil cardinal is a particular delight because it showed a love of acting not always evident in his other roles.

I enjoy many of Heston’s movies--and his letters to this paper, too--but let us all keep our feet on the ground, and cherish the few real icons we have on this Earth for as long as we can.

PAT SWEENEY

Long Beach

In the laudatory obituaries of Jimmy Stewart, undue emphasis was laid on American films like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “The Philadelphia Story.” The films with his best work--”Rear Window,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much” and “Vertigo”--were mentioned only in passing, perhaps because they were not “American.” These films were a strong rebuttal to the comments that Stewart always played himself.

I have always enjoyed Charles Champlin’s tributes to the departed stars. But I was dismayed by what I read in his tribute to Jimmy Stewart. It did not befit his stature to write “filibustering idealist collapsing into a pile of supportive telegrams in ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.’ ” Most of us have seen the film again and again and know that the pile of telegrams was not “supportive” but “critical,” orchestrated by James Taylor and his machine. I would expect this kind of slip of memory from a fan but not from a critic who has the resources and the responsibility to check the veracity of what he or she writes, and especially not from someone of the stature of Charles Champlin.

Interestingly enough, the other error was also about the same film. Susan King writing about the films of Jimmy Stewart available on video writes “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” as an idealistic young man who is chosen to fill in in Congress for an ailing senator.” The error is all the more glaring because the film opens with the close-up of a reporter saying these lines into the telephone, “Senator Samuel Foley dead. Yeah, yeah, died a minute ago here at St. Vincent.”

And now to Jimmy Stewart, a master of self-deprecating deadpan humor, an unforgettable icon of acting and a class act as a human being. The story goes that when he had to shoot the last scene as the hoarse-voiced Sen. Smith, Stewart went to his doctor and said, “If you can cure a sore throat, you can create one. Give me a sore throat.” Jimmy Stewart was a rare and awe-inspiring combination of talent, humanity and humility.

GOKUL

Los Angeles